Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft was founded in 1898 by German-born United States citizen Emile Berliner as the German branch of his Berliner Gramophone Company. Berliner sent his nephew Joseph Sanders from America to set up operations. Based in the city of Hanover (the founder's birthplace), the company became a fully owned subsidiary of the Gramophone Company Ltd. in 1900 and an affiliate of the US Victor Talking Machine Company. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the company seceded from the Gramophone Company. Though no longer affiliated with Gramophone Company and Victor, Deutsche Grammophon retained the "His Master's Voice" trademark featuring Nipper the dog for use in Germany until the late 1940s; for several years following its secession, the company even continued selling recordings made from pre-war matrices owned by the Gramophone Company and Victor.

In 1941, Deutsche Grammophon was purchased by Siemens & Halske. In 1949, Deutsche Grammophon sold the German rights of the His Master's Voice trademark to the Electrola unit of EMI. The dog and gramophone were replaced by the crown of tulips, designed by Siemens advertising consultant Hans Domizlaff. The distinctive yellow cartouche banner, occupying almost a third of each recording's cover, first appeared in 1957 and was a staple of the majority of its full-price recordings until the early years of the 21st century, when it all but disappeared from new releases. It has since enjoyed something of a revival in newer recordings.

In 1962, Siemens formed a joint venture with Netherlands-based Philips to create the DGG/PPI Record Group, which became PolyGram Records in 1972. By this time, DGG had built a reputation for high-quality recording in the classical field as well as a notable roster of contracted singers, musicians, and conductors. Through its subsidiary label Archiv Produktion it also stimulated interest in Western medieval and renaissance music, 15th – 16th century choral polyphony, Gregorian chant, and pioneering use of "historical instruments" and performance practices in recordings.

DGG/Polydor's entrance into the US market in 1969 (DGG had previous been distributed in the US by Decca and MGM Records) came at a time when the leading US classical music labels RCA Victor Red Seal and Columbia Masterworks were dropping most of their unlucrative classical artists and pressing inferior quality records. DGG's high quality recordings and pressings attracted artists such as Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra (who had recorded for RCA Victor since 1935) and Leonard Bernstein (after several years with Columbia) to DGG/Polydor. In 1987, Siemens sold off its interest in PolyGram, and Philips became the majority shareholder. In 1998, the Seagram company of Canada purchased Deutsche Grammophon and PolyGram on behalf of its Universal Music Group subsidiary. Since then, UMG was sold and became a division of Vivendi until its IPO in September 2021.

In 1983 Deutsche Grammophon pioneered the introduction of the compact disc to the mass market, debuting classical music performed by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic, the first recording being Richard Strauss's Eine Alpensinfonie.

In 2022, Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music Group launched STAGE+, a multimedia streaming service featuring live streams of concerts presented by artists signed to the label, as well as on-demand access to archival video performances of concerts from the label's catalogue and audio streaming of albums from Deutsche Grammophon and Decca Classics, as well as classical albums released on the UMG-distributed ECM Records label. Following UMG's 2023 acquisition of Hyperion Records, select Hyperion albums have been added to STAGE+'s library.